Diplomatic Text
Abbey March 3d 1772
Thank God it is once more given me to
thank my Dear Miʃs Hamilton for her own and her Mama's
kind interestedneʃs about Us: bellieve me ours for you is
not leʃs. when I received your last (which by the bye
pleasd me to find you once more at Northampton -- as I think
it will agree better with Mrs Hamilton than London),
Mr Napier was given over by his Physicians & I unable
almost to Support the Load that oprest me -- thank God
that Danger is over: it has ended in the Gout & now
at the end of fifeteen Weeks we are in hopes to get
him out of his room the first good Day -- I will just
add: that in all this time I have never been out of the
House nor Ever able even to write to my Brother till last
Post judge then my Dear if I have been able to be a
better Correspondant to you or not? my own Health has
suffer'd but leʃs violently than could have been expected
as instead of a feaver which was to have been Aprehended
I have only contracted very Severe Hysterick[1] complaints.
my Br: & all his familly are well I expect them in London
in May. We are Happy to hear you have so good friends
in Sr Wilm & Lady Hamilton -- & hope they have been of
Use in setling matters properly & Aimicably betwixt you & Mr
Frederick -- be asured we long to hear that all is now as yo[u]
wish it should be -- when you see or write to Sir Wilm do
remember us to him in the kindest manner asure him we
Sympathized most affectionatly with him for his & our Great
Loʃs of Lady Cathcart[2] -- . I begin to wonder we have never
heard of the arriveal or Burial of her Corps which were
put aboard so long ago: have you ever heard of it?
Mr Napier joins your Young friends & me in offers of
our most affectionate compts: to Mrs Hamilton & Yourself --
they are all very much grown & all much Yours. & so will ever
remain my Dear Miʃs Hamiltons most Affectionate Cousin
& most faithful Humble Sert:
M A Napier
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Presumably in the older sense ‘uterine’ or more generally gynaecological complaints.
2. Jane Cathcart died in St Petersburg in November 1771 (see HAM/1/4/7/29). She was sister-in-law to Mary Anne Napier, and the sister of Charles, William and Frederick Hamilton (and therefore Mary Hamilton's aunt).
Normalised Text
Abbey March 3d 1772
Thank God it is once more given me to
thank my Dear Miss Hamilton for her own and her Mama's
kind interestedness about Us: believe me ours for you is
not less. when I received your last (which by the bye
pleased me to find you once more at Northampton -- as I think
it will agree better with Mrs Hamilton than London),
Mr Napier was given over by his Physicians & I unable
almost to Support the Load that oppressed me -- thank God
that Danger is over: it has ended in the Gout & now
at the end of fifteen Weeks we are in hopes to get
him out of his room the first good Day -- I will just
add: that in all this time I have never been out of the
House nor Ever able even to write to my Brother till last
Post judge then my Dear if I have been able to be a
better Correspondent to you or not? my own Health has
suffered but less violently than could have been expected
as instead of a fever which was to have been Apprehended
I have only contracted very Severe Hysteric complaints.
my Brother & all his family are well I expect them in London
in May. We are Happy to hear you have so good friends
in Sir William & Lady Hamilton -- & hope they have been of
Use in settling matters properly & Amicably betwixt you & Mr
Frederick -- be assured we long to hear that all is now as you
wish it should be -- when you see or write to Sir William do
remember us to him in the kindest manner assure him we
Sympathized most affectionately with him for his & our Great
Loss of Lady Cathcart -- . I begin to wonder we have never
heard of the arrival or Burial of her Corpse which were
put aboard so long ago: have you ever heard of it?
Mr Napier joins your Young friends & me in offers of
our most affectionate compliments to Mrs Hamilton & Yourself --
they are all very much grown & all much Yours. & so will ever
remain my Dear Miss Hamiltons most Affectionate Cousin
& most faithful Humble Servant
Mary Anne Napier
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Mary Anne Napier to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/15
Correspondence Details
Sender: Lady Mary Anne Napier (née Cathcart)
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Northampton
Date sent: 3 March 1772
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Mary Anne Napier [later Lady Napier] to Mary Hamilton. She is
pleased to find Hamilton once more in Northampton, which she feels will be
better for her mother than being in London. Napier writes of her husband’s
health and his suffering with gout. She is in hopes that he will be able to
leave his room on the ‘first good Day’. She herself has not left the house
since his illness and has not even had the time to write to her brother
[Lord Cathcart] until last post. Hamilton cannot expect her to be a better
correspondent at such a time. She continues on her own health and that she
is happy to hear that Hamilton has such good friends in Sir William and Lady
Hamilton and she hopes that they have helped in settling ‘matters properly
& amicably between you & Mr Frederick [Hamilton]’. She also writes
on the death of Lady Cathcart.
Dated at Abbey [Edinburgh].
Length: 1 sheet, 377 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 28 August 2020)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021